Goodbye Goodyear blimp; hello state-of-the-art airship. Goodyear’s huge and beautiful new semi-rigid airship took its first flight this week, and it’s larger and faster than the old Goodyear blimps the company has been flying for the past 45 years.

4. Big Bang Smoking Gun
The Big Bang theory just became a lot more real this week, as scientists detected ancient gravitational waves that are the first direct evidence of what they call “cosmic inflation.” Their precise measurements revealed the power and speed of the birth of the universe. Next up: scientists try to figure out what caused the Big Bang itself.

Formula One racing has profoundly changed in the past year, where last year’s cars sounded like screaming banshees and this year’s cars resemble George Jetson’s flying car. Why are they so different? The 2013 engines were normally aspirated 2.4 L V-8s, and the 2014 models are 1.6-liter V-6 turbo engines with a lot more hybrid electric assist than their predecessors.

2. A Clockwork Outrageous
Jacob&Co rolls out one of the most elaborate watches ever, the Astronomia Tourbillon. The timepiece’s four escapements each rotate around a central hub, and one is a clock face that keeps its hands properly oriented as it completes its orbit. Check it out:

Rock star Billy Joel and host Jimmy Fallon killed it on The Tonight Show this week, singing an overdubbed a doo-wop quartet using iPad app Loop HD. Here’s a little secret, though: they got help from some serious professional hardware hidden backstage, the $1,395 Apogee Quartet multichannel audio interface for iPad.